Our Special Day

We took Kate out on Sunday for a special day before Baby Jack makes his arrival. After church, we went to lunch and then headed to the Magic House. We had a blast!!

This is Kate's fake smile. We can't even pull out the camera without her plastering this on.

Working in the "Oval Office". You know, making all those important decisions and all.

In the Construcion Zone "painting" a wall.

We just look goofy in that one.

Anything music related was a fave.

And, the water room... well, that was just FUN!

Until she started licking the water off the germ infested water tables.

We had a little accident in the pretend "bank". Poor girl was running to sit in a chair, and ran right into the chair. Not sure how it happened, but her loss of coordination could have come from her lack of sleep that day. She bit her tongue and it bled all in her mouth. We made a trip to the Family Restroom to get her a wet paper towel and then she was "all better".

See? She's showing off her all better tongue to Daddy.

This was the big finale at the Magic House. So fun!!

After the Magic House, ice cream was in order.

I don't think we were in the car five minutes after that and she was sound asleep in the backseat.

It was such a fun day with our girl on our last weekend as a family of three.

Pumpkin Patch

We spent Sunday afternoon at Rombach's Pumpkin Patch. It was such a BEAUTIFUL day!! It had been so cold and dreary for about two weeks here, so we were waiting for just the right time to go.

We went last year, but mainly just walked around and let Kate play in all the pumpkins. This year, since she could enjoy it more, we did a lot more of the "fun stuff".

She went through a little fort...

Posed for LOTS of pictures...

Rode a pony...

She was not impressed. We waited in line for awhile to ride a pony, and I kept asking her over and over if she was sure she wanted to do it. She tends to chicken out of stuff like that. She kept saying yes, so I plopped her on that pony, and she boo-hooed the whole way. She kept saying "Off!" Then, after it was over she proudly told us that she liked it and was a brave girl (yeah, right!).

She got to pick out her very own little pumpkin, which we will paint next week...

She got her face painted...

And, I think her favorite part of all was this big sucker we bought for her as we were leaving...

It was a great trip to the pumpkin patch. We kept saying how next year we will have an almost three year old and an eight month old. Doesn't quite seem possible!!

A Visit to the Farm

Hey all!! We got back from vacation around 2:30 a.m on Thursday morning. Poor Mark had to be at work at 7 a.m. that morning. As usual, we hit the ground running. We had dinner with friends that night, which I was over an hour late to because I locked my keys in my car about 45 minutes away from home and had to call AAA to send a locksmith. It stunk big time.

Friday morning, Kate and I met some of my teacher friends and their kiddos at Purina Farms. It's only about 15 minutes away, and Kate and I had never been. We packed a lunch and got there early around 9:30. The weather was just gorgeous!!

Here are the girls getting ready to go in.

Then, the boys joined them.

Seriously, aren't they all so cute standing there holding hands????

Poor Kate kept falling in her tennis shoes. She is so used to sandals that she walked funny the whole time she wore her little Nikes.

Luckily, I brought her sandals along and changed her shoes pretty close to the beginning of the trip. She was looking a little silly falling over nothing!

The kids got to look at sheep.

They got to play in hay, crawl through tunnels, drive toy tractors through corn, and ride on little tractor bikes.

They got to pet pigs. One of the pigs had a yucky "behind" and Kate hasn't stopped talking about it every time pigs get mentioned.

Here's Kate with a goose and one of the worker's hands. She was telling her why it's NOT a good idea to squeeze its beak. You would think it was the little guy next to her that tried that trick, but, nope... it was Kate! :)

Then, we ventured to the dog show, where we saw dogs do lots of tricks including jumping into a dog pool to chase a frisbee. The kids LOVED that one!!

After that, it was a picnic lunch and time to let the kids run a bit.

We finished our trip off with a tractor ride around the farm.

They were all exhausted!!

The kids played peek-a-boo around a tree while the Mamas packed the cars.

And, like any good trip, it ended like this.

I REALLY need to tighten that strap!!

The day was a job well done, Mamas!!

Playdate

We had an impromptu playdate at my friend, Denise's house, on Monday.

All of us used to teach together. Now, only two of us remain at the same school. The rest are at other schools or are not teaching anymore to be a stay at home mom. We try to get together once a month for bruch and a playdate. This day was last minute, and was the second time this month. So fun!!

The kids are super cute together. A five year old, three three year olds, Kate, and Baby Naomi who will be running around with all the kids before we know it!!

There's four of them. Where's the fifth?

There he is!!

It's darn near impossible to get them all together for a picture. We all stand around like paparazzi with our cameras, yelling, "Say cheese!!" "Kate, look at the camera!" "Madelyn, look right here!!", "Dominic, stand right there!", "Natalie, come back!" "Put your arms around each other!" "Look at me!"

It's probably a sight to see. And those poor kids. They just want to run. :)

This is how most of their four hours went. Running back and forth from swingset, to playhouse, to clear across the yard with the occasional bump, scratch, or bruise.

When it was all over, the kids were tired, dirty, and mosquito bitten. And us friends/moms were refreshed.